May 2012
“Oh, dip my emptied life into that ocean,
plunge it into the deepest fullness.
Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch
in the allness of the universe.” —Rabindranath Tagore - Brink of Eternity
plunge it into the deepest fullness.
Let me for once feel that lost sweet touch
in the allness of the universe.” —Rabindranath Tagore - Brink of Eternity
“Die meisten Menschen glauben, ihrem eigenen Willen zu folgen, ohne sich bewusst zu sein, dass dieser konditioniert und manipuliert wurde.”
—Erich Fromm, Haben oder Sein (engl. in ‘To Have or to Be?’)
“Life is truly known only to those who suffer, lose, endure adversity and stumble from defeat to defeat.”
—Anais Nin
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“My soul is a hidden orchestra ; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tambours I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear, is the symphony.”
—Fernando Pessoa
Play
“No matter what, once in your life, someone will hurt you.That someone will take all that you are, and rip it into pieces and they won’t even watch where the pieces land.But through the breakdown, you’ll learn something about yourself. You’ll learn that you’re strong and no matter how hard they destroy you, that you can conquer anyone.”
—Unknown
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
—Marcus Aurelius
“All the effort in the world won’t matter if you’re not inspired.”
—Chuck Palahniuk
“I recommend optimistic realism. Joyful optimistic realism. Life can be precious and funny. And one doesn’t need to embrace fantastical stories - unbecoming to historically mature beings - about our natures to make it so.”
—Owen Flanagan, The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a material world
“It’s only the giving that makes you what you are.”
—Ian Anderson
“A lot of pop music is about stealing pocket money from children.”
—Ian Anderson
“Never waste your time trying to explain who you are to people who are committed to misunderstanding you.”
—Unknown
“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.”
—Carl Sagan
“Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life…When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.”
—Henry David Thoreau
“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”
—David Foster Wallace
“
Den Gegner aber müssen wir in uns selbst suchen.
Die Einwürfe, die zu fürchten sein möchten, liegen in uns selbst. Wir müssen sie hervorsuchen, um einen ewigen Frieden zu gründen.
Die Wahrheit hat an sich selbst keinen Wert. Ob eine Meinung von der Bewohnung vieler Welten wahr oder falsch sei, das ist einerlei. Aber man muss sie nicht mit der Wahrhaftigkeit vermengen. Denn nur die Art, wie man zur Wahrheit gelangt, hat einen bestimmten Wert, weil die, die zum Irrtum führt, es auch in praktischen Dingen tun kann.
” —Immanuel Kant
“When we hold each other, in the darkness, it doesn’t make the darkness go away. The bad things are still out there. The nightmares still walking. When we hold each other we feel not safe, but better. “It’s all right” we whisper, “I’m here, I love you.” and we lie: “I’ll never leave you.” For just a moment or two the darkness doesn’t seem so bad.”
—Neil Gaiman, Neil Gaiman’s Midnight Days
“This is the problem with dealing with someone who is actually a good listener. They don’t jump in on your sentences, saving you from actually finishing them, or talk over you, allowing what you do manage to get out to be lost or altered in transit. Instead, they wait, so you have to keep going.”
—Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
“If I’d have my life to live over again, I would make it a rule to read a poem a day.”
—Charles Darwin
“The nineteenth century said ”God is dead”; the twentieth century could say ”Man is dead.” Means have been transformed into ends, the production and consumption of things has become the aim of life, to which living is subordinated. We produce things that act like men and men that act like things. Emerson already saw that ”things are in the saddle and ride mankind.” Today many of us see it. The achievement of well-being is possible only under one condition: if we put man back into the saddle.”
—Erich Fromm
“Ist es möglich, die allgemeine Liebe zwischen den Menschen, den schonenden Umgang miteinander, einzuführen?
Man kann den Menschen befehlen, zu fasten, zu kämpfen oder unsinnige Kleidung zu tragen, und sie führen es aus. Dabei ist all dies höchst unpraktisch und unangenehm. Die allgemeine Liebe dagegen ist angenehm und nützlich. Und wer anderen behilflich ist und sie liebt, wird wiedergeliebt. Wenn man unsinnige und unnützliche Dinge befehlen kann, dann kann man auch die allgemeine Liebe befehlen.” —Nach Mo Di, ca. 480 - 380 vor unserer Zeitrechnung
Man kann den Menschen befehlen, zu fasten, zu kämpfen oder unsinnige Kleidung zu tragen, und sie führen es aus. Dabei ist all dies höchst unpraktisch und unangenehm. Die allgemeine Liebe dagegen ist angenehm und nützlich. Und wer anderen behilflich ist und sie liebt, wird wiedergeliebt. Wenn man unsinnige und unnützliche Dinge befehlen kann, dann kann man auch die allgemeine Liebe befehlen.” —Nach Mo Di, ca. 480 - 380 vor unserer Zeitrechnung
“The pleasantest things in the world are pleasant thoughts: and the great art of life is to have as many of them as possible.”
—Montaigne
“I believe now that depression can never be fully grasped by mental health professionals who have not experienced it. Though I can’t claim to know everything about depression, I have a unique and powerful perspective: as a suicide survivor, as a sufferer myself, as a patient, and as a therapist. I know that people who are depressed work very hard at living, but much of their effort is fruitless, a waste of energy. It is as if they are in over their heads and don’t know how to swim; the harder they work, the worse things get.”
—Richard O’Connor, Undoing Depression
“This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind…let it be something good.”
—Unknown
“Love the earth and sun and animals,
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others…
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” —Walt Whitman
Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks,
Stand up for the stupid and crazy,
Devote your income and labor to others…
And your very flesh shall be a great poem.” —Walt Whitman
